Polish Grammar in a Nutshell © Oscar E. Swan University of Pittsburgh 2003 Information on Polish sounds and grammar which should be mastered by the intermediate-level student of the language. POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL 540 POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL CONTENTS The Polish Alphabet and Sounds 5 Notes on Spelling and Pronunciation 6 Sound Changes 8 Nouns 9 Noun Gender 9 Cases and Case Use 11 Noun Phrases 13 Regular Noun Endings 15 Distribution of Endings 16 Noun Endings Depending on the Hard-Soft Distinction 17 Noun Declensions 19 Days of the Week 23 Compass Directions 23 Months 24 Pronouns 24 Personal Pronouns 24 Possessive Pronouns 26 Demonstrative and Relative Pronouns 27 Intensive Pronoun 28 Reflexive Pronoun 28 Distributive Pronoun 29 Adjectives 30 Adjective Declension 30 Adjective-Noun Order 30 Comparison of Adjectives 31 Adjective Opposites 31 Adverbs 33 Comparison of Adverbs 33 Non-Adjectival Adverbs 35 Numerals 37 Cardinal Numerals 37 Compound Numbers 38 Declension of Cardinal Numerals 38 541 POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL Collective Numerals 41 Reified Numerals 42 Indefinite Numerals 42 Counting People 42 Ordinal Numerals 43 Time of Day 43 Dates, Years, Expressing ‘How Old’ 44 Prepositions 45 Prepositions Arranged According to Case 46 Prepositions Expressing 'at', 'to', 'from' 47 Expressions of Time 47 Polish Translations of 'For' 48 Conjunctions 50 Verbs 51 Finite Verb Categories 53 Present Tense 53 Summary of Verb Classes 56 Imperative 57 Past Tense 58 Future Tense 60 Perfective and Imperfective Aspect 60 Verbs of Motion 62 Conditional Mood 63 Participles and Gerunds 64 Passive Voice 66 Impersonal Verbs 67 Reflexive Verbs 68 Important Sentence Constructions 71 Constructions with the Infinitive 71 Modal Expressions 71 ‘Introducing’ Sentences 71 Expressing 'There Is' 72 Predicate Nouns and Adjectives 72 Yes-No Questions 72 Negation 72 Word Order 73 Sentence Intonation 73 542 POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL THE POLISH ALPHABET AND SOUNDS Here is the Polish alphabet: a, à, b, c, ç, d, e, ´, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, ∏, m, n, ƒ, o, ó, p, r, s, Ê, t, u, w, y, z, ê, ˝. SOUND VALUES OF THE LETTERS APPROXIMATE LETTER ENGLISH SOUND EXAMPLE a father tak thus, so, yes, raz once à dome sà they are, wà˝ snake The sound à is pronounced like om, except that the lips or tongue are not completely closed to pronounce the m, leaving a nasal resonance instead. b big bok side, aby so that bi- beautiful bieg course, run, race, tobie to you c fits co what, noc night, taca tray ch hall chata cottage, ucho ear, dach roof The sound of ch is much raspier and noisier than English h. ci- cheek ciasto cake, cicho quiet cz chalk czas time, gracz player, t´cza rainbow ç cheek choç although, niçmi thread (Inst. pl.) The letters ç and ci- are pronounced the same. The combination ci- is used before a vowel. The letter c before i is pronounced like ç/ci-. The sound of ç/ci-, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English )y), is different from that of cz, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "r". d do data date, lada counter dz odds cudzy foreign, wodze reins dzi- jeans dziadek grandfather, ludzie people dê jeans wiedêma witch. ludêmi people-Instr.pl. d˝ jaw d˝ez jazz, rad˝a rajah The letters dê and dzi- are pronounced the same. The combination dzi- is used before a vowel. The letters dz before i are pronounced like dê/dzi-. The sound of dê/dzi-, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "y", is different from that of d˝, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "r". e ever ten this (masc.), ale but, Edek Eddie ´ sense g´Ê goose, t´skniç long for The sound ´ is pronounced like em, except that the lips or tongue are not completely closed to pronounce the m, leaving a nasal resonance instead. At the end of a word, the letter ´ is normally pronounced the same as e: naprawd´ "naprawde". f felt farba paint, lufa rifle-barrel, blef bluff g get guma rubber, noga leg, foot gi- bug you gie∏da stock-market, magiel mangle h hall hak hook, aha aha! 543 POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL Pronounced the same as ch (see above), the letter h appears mainly in words of foreign origin. i cheek list letter, ig∏a needle j you, boy jak as, raj paradise, zajàc hare k keg kot cat, rok year, oko eye ki- like you kiedy when, takie such (neut.) l love las forest, dal distance, fala wave ∏ wag, bow ∏eb animal head, by∏ he was, o∏ówek pencil mi- harm you miara measure, ziemia earth m moth mama mama, tom volume n not noc night, pan sir, ono it ni- canyon nie no, not, nigdy never ƒ canyon koƒ horse, haƒba disgrace The letters ƒ and ni- are pronounced the same. The combination ni- is used before a vowel. The letter n before i is pronounced like ƒ/ni-. o poke pot sweat, osa wasp, okno window ó toot ból pain, o∏ówek pencil The letter ó is pronounced the same as u. p pup pas belt, strap, ∏apa paw, cap billy-goat pi- stop you piana foam, ∏apie he catches r arriba (Span.) rada advic, kara punishment, dar gift The sound r is pronounced by trilling the tip of the tongue, as in Spanish or Italian. rz pleasure rzeka river, morze sea The letter-combination rz is pronounced the same as ˝; see below. s sad sam the same (masc.), pas belt, rasa breed si- sheep siano hay, sito sieve sz shark szal frenzy, dusza sou, Ê sheep oÊ axle, kwaÊny sour, Êpi he sleeps The letters Ê and si- are pronounced the same. The combination si- is used before a vowel. The letter s before i is pronounced like Ê/si-. The sound of Ê/si-, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "y", is different from that of sz, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "r". t top tam there, data date, kot cat u toot but shoe, tu here, ucho ear w vat wata cotton wadding, kawa coffee y ill dym smoke, ty you (sg.) z zoo zupa soup, faza phase zi- azure ziarno grain, zima winter ê azure wyraêny distinct, êle badly ˝ pleasure ˝aba frog, pla˝a beach The letters ê and zi- are pronounced the same. The combination zi- is used before a vowel. The letter z before i is pronounced like ê/zi-. The sound of ê/zi-, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "y", is different from that of ˝, pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "r". 544 POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL NOTES ON SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION 1. The Polish alphabet has no Q, V or X, although these letters may be found in transcriptions of foreign names, and in a few borrowed words, e.g. video, pan X Mr. X.. 2. Polish vowels a, e, i, y, o, u (ó) are all pronounced with exactly the same short length, achieved by not moving the tongue or the lips after the onset of the vowel, as happens, for example, in English vowel-sounds ee (knee), oe (toe), oo (boot). Only the nasal vowels are pronounced long, the length being due to rounding the lips and pronouncing the glide "w" at the end: sà. 3. Polish consonant sounds may be pronounced slightly differently according to position in a word. Most importantly, voiced consonant sounds b, d, dz, g, rz, w, z, ê, ˝ are pronounced as unvoiced sounds (p, t, c, k, sz, f, s, Ê, sz, respectively) in final position. For example, paw is pronounced "paf"; chodê is pronounced "choç". voiced bddzgrzwzê˝ voiceless pt c kszf sÊsz 4. The letters à and ´ are usually pronounced like on/om or en/em, respectively, before consonants. For example, làd is pronounced "lont"; dàb is pronounced "domp"; t´py is pronounced "tempy"; d´ty is pronounced "denty"; and so on. Before ç and dê, ´ and à are pronounced eƒ/oƒ: ch´ç "cheƒç", làdzie "loƒdzie". Before k and g, à and ´ may be pronounced as o or e plus the English ng sound: màka, pot´ga. The vowels à and ´ are usually denasalized before l or ∏: zdj´li "zdjeli", zdjà∏ "zdjo∏". 5. The stress in a Polish word falls on the next-to-last syllable: sprawa SPRA-wa, Warszawa War-SZA-wa, gospodarka go-spo-DAR-ka, zadowolony za-do-wo-LO-ny. As these examples show, Polish syllables tend to divide after a vowel. Words in -yka take stress on the preceding syllable: mateMAtyka, MU-zyka. The past-tense endings -yÊmy/-iÊmy, -yÊcie/-iÊcie do not cause a shift in place of stress: BY-∏yÊ-my. 6. SPELLING RULES: a. So-called kreska consonants (ç, dê, ƒ, Ê, ê) are spelled with an acute mark only at word-end and before consonants; otherwise, they are spelled as c, dz, s, z, n plus a following i: dzieƒ "dêeƒ", nie "ƒe". Before the vowel i itself, no extra i is needed: ci "çi" to you. b. Certain instances of b, p, w, f, m are latently soft, meaning that they will be treated as soft (in effect, as if kreska consonants) before vowels. In the spelling, they will be followed by i. Compare paw peacock, plural pawie (paw'-e) peacocks. 545 POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL c. The letter y can be written only after a hard consonant (see below) or after c, cz, dz, rz, sz, ˝.